Resolve
by BerkieLynn
Summary: Castle and Beckett are so wrapped up in their own bubble that their friends are feeling left out.
1. Esposito & Ryan

For Jennifer, who gave me ideas when I asked for them

* * *

"Stop it," Esposito hissed across the table.

Beckett shot a look of "What the hell?" at him and he rolled his eyes. Esposito _rolled his eyes._ "What's gotten into you?"

"You guys just-" he stopped to gesture between her and Castle. "Just need to stop."

Beckett cut her eyes over to her partner but he only shrugged; he was as clueless as she was. "You're gonna have to give me more than that. We're going through financials, same as you."

"No, not the same as me!" he said emphatically and a little too loud. The detective lowered his voice and added, "I'm not also engaging in lovesick looks and 'accidental touches' and probably footsie or some other nonsense." He shuddered and dropped his eyes back to the pages before him.

Beckett looked at Castle again and this time his shrug was one of agreement. He bounced his leg to prove his point and only then was she aware that her shoeless foot was wrapped around his ankle. She carefully withdrew it and slid it back into the heel sitting on the floor.

"Sorry, Espo," she muttered, getting back to the task at hand. Resolving herself to curb the touching. Well, trying to resolve herself to curb the touching.

* * *

She lasted another hour and it was all Castle's fault that her resolve broke.

They were out of coffee again and he got up with the empty mugs, wrapping the fingers of one hand around both handles. As he walked past her, he took advantage of the fact that she had worn her hair up that day and brushed the fingers of his unoccupied hand across the back of her neck. The touch was light and teasing. And hot as hell. She glanced over her shoulder as he left the room but he wasn't even looking back. The bastard.

She could still feel it; phantom fingertips trailing across her skin, energy vibrating down her extremities. She breathed deep through her nose but her body betrayed her on the exhale, her breath stuttering.

Esposito lifted his eyes to her and pulled the pen out of his mouth. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Damn it, her voice was a little too low and rough. She cleared her throat, started again. "Yeah, just maybe need a break. Stretch my legs a little." Weakest excuse ever. "Be right back."

"'Kay." He had to have seen right through her but he marked something on the page in his hand, put the pen back in his mouth and flipped the paper over, already ignoring her.

Kate stood on slightly shaky legs and managed to walk out of the room. The bullpen was fairly empty; theirs was the only open case and most everyone had left for the day. Those that were still there were engrossed in computer screens or files and so she didn't even make a pretense of where she was headed, just strode straight to the break room.

Castle was steaming milk in a shiny pitcher when she entered. "You can't do that." Her voice was hushed but forceful. He continued his task at hand but a smirk twisted at his lips. He spun the handle to stop the steam, grabbed a towel to wipe the milk from the wand.

"Do what?" His attempt at innocence was marred by the smirk that he couldn't wipe off his face. And by the fact that she intimately knows how innocent he is not.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Seriously? That's your play?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He poured the espresso in their mugs, layered in the milk. Kept smirking.

"We're gonna traumatize Javi if you can't keep your damn hands off me."

He handed her her mug. "First of all, it was your wandering foot that started this and second," he paused to sip at his drink, "no."

"No?"

"No." He set his mug down and then invaded her space, placed his hands on the counter on either side of her, boxing her in. He leaned forward, his lips dangerously close to hers. "I will make no such promise to keep my damn hands off you."

Kate's own hands tightened around the mug; she was grateful it was there as a buffer. Without it, she would have broken all of her rules about precinct protocol. Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips and she swallowed to attempt the same for her suddenly dry throat. She ought to have some kind of retort right now, right? Isn't that usually how this goes? She wasn't interested in using her lips to form words though.

She had just opened her mouth to say something, anything when an exasperated voice cut in. "Are you guys kidding me?" They turned their heads in unison to find Ryan standing at the break room door. Castle stood and retrieved his coffee, took a step back.

"Hey, what'd you find?" Beckett asked the younger detective, hoping her voice sounded light.

"Really? We're just gonna ignore that?"

She glanced at Castle, he nodded at her then at Ryan before adding, "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

He shook his head at the pair of them. "Nope, not this time. Come on." He stepped aside from the doorway and swept his arm out, clearly intending for them to precede him from the room.

"You're serious." Beckett didn't ask. She could see it all over his face that he meant business. Whatever this business was.

"Yep. Javi and I have been talking about it and it's time that we talk to you, too. Let's go."

Beckett had half a mind to refuse but curiosity won out and she walked out of the break room, Castle trailing behind her. It was like being ushered to the principal's office. They all trooped into the conference room and Ryan shut the doors behind them.

"Guess who I found canoodling in the break room?" Ryan asked his partner.

"You should have seen them earlier," Esposito tossed back. "Footsie and everything."

"I would care to point out that canoodle means actually engaging in kissing and that's not what…" Castle trailed off as the two men fixed him with withering looks.

"That's what this is about?! The flirting?" Beckett flopped down in a chair after her outburst and somehow managed to only slosh a little of the coffee out of her mug.

"Oh ho ho, my friend, what you call flirting, we see as disturbing." Ryan's face animated with his words, something Beckett would have found funny except for the fact that he was talking about them.

"Bro, take it down a notch," Esposito warned. Ryan sobered a bit.

"Just, have a seat," he said to Castle as he pulled out a chair for himself. Castle took the seat he'd been in earlier but scooted his chair a little further away. Out of footsie distance, one might call it.

"Okay, first of all, I need to mention that we're all happy for you. We've all had front row seats to this and it's nice that you figured it out and you have each other." Beckett blushed (Ryan was pretty sure that was the first time that he'd ever seen his boss do that) and ducked her head, biting her bottom lip in a futile attempt to hide a smile. Castle was suppressing a grin, his closed lips stretched across his face but there was nothing to be done about the sparkling in his eyes. They sneaked a look at each other and the smiles broke free. Castle held a hand out to her, palm up, and she laid hers over his easily, fingers tangling.

"Aaaaaand there's where we have our problem," Ryan continued. They looked up to find him pointing a finger at their joined hands. Beckett immediately withdrew her hand from her partner's and pointedly placed both of hers in her own lap.

"Is it really that big of a problem?" she asked.

"That it happens isn't a problem at all but, time and a place, ya know? And here at work? Neither the time nor the place." Ryan let that sink in for a second. "Think we can curb that a little bit? Because seriously, it's like watching your parents hit on each other." The guys both mimed a gag and Castle and Beckett couldn't help but chuckle at them.

"It won't be easy or fun," Castle was cut off as Beckett lightly backhanded him on the bicep then continued with a grin, "but sure, we can work on that."

"Okay, good." Ryan took a deep breath before moving on to the other topic at hand. "So, we acknowledge that you might not have noticed all the touching, right?" He waited for both of them to nod before continuing. "There's something else you haven't noticed either."

Simultaneously, Castle and Beckett furrowed their brows and tilted their heads to the right a bit. (Seriously, how did they do that?) "What else is there?" Castle asked.

"Well, there's, uh…" Ryan realized that he had lost the head of steam that he'd built up at the beginning of this conversation and found the rest of it hard to-

"Us." Esposito stepped in to save his partner. Ryan shot him a nod of thanks. "Your friends. Remember?"

"Yeah, I know who you are." The annoyance was evident in Beckett's voice.

"You sure?" Esposito shot back. "Because you don't seem to want to hang out with us anymore." He turned to Castle, "When was the last time you had us over to play Halo?"

The writer looked off in the distance, clearly trying to come up with the answer.

Esposito continued on, "Or when was the last time that we all went out to the Old Haunt for a drink? That's not what happens anymore. It's the end of the day or the end of a case and you guys call out a 'see you tomorrow' across the bullpen and just leave. We kinda feel…left out."

The atmosphere in the room became decidedly awkward at the confession. And as much as Beckett wanted to, she couldn't come up with an argument to refute the claim. The boys were right; she and Castle had kind of just wrapped themselves up in their own little bubble. They'd mostly come out of it for work, it didn't get in the way of solving cases(though that had always been so much a part of the connection anyway, it wasn't a surprise that it was easy to incorporate) but their personal lives outside of each other? Had been decidedly lacking.

Beckett looked over at her partner and found him inspecting his shoes rather furiously. He had apparently come to the same conclusion. She reached out to touch him on the arm (just to get his attention) and he lifted remorseful eyes at her. "They're right," she said softly.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Guys, I'm sorry." Ryan and Esposito just shrugged him off but he pushed on. "No, I'm serious. I'm sure that most people around here think that she's the only reason that I've hung around here for so long, but you're right, you're my friends, too. And I'm sorry."

"Me, too," Beckett interjected. "I never meant to shut anyone out, we just got caught up and…I'm just sorry."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Ryan consoled them. "Like I said, we're happy for you. We'd just like to still be included in your lives every now and then."

"We can do that," Castle assured him, glanced at Beckett for confirmation but she was already nodding her assent.

"This weekend?" she asked. "Friday or Saturday night, depending on how the case goes, we all go out for drinks."

"You're on," Esposito answered, Ryan nodding agreement as well. "But, uh, there's one other person that you need to talk to," he hedged, looking straight at Beckett.

She caught on. "Lanie," she murmured, mostly to herself.

"Yep," he confirmed. "And she's probably not gonna be as nice as us."

"Thanks for that warning." Kate breathed deep and exhaled, lightening a bit. "So, After School Special over, can we get back to this case?"

"Sure, but you're not gonna like what I found," Ryan began before filling her in on the canvas he'd returned from.


	2. Lanie

A/N - Thanks for the reviews/follows/favorites for this little story that I've tackled. As before, thanks goes to Jennifer (pjrbcb on tumblr) for the prompt. And for telling me that my words don't sound insane.

* * *

Lanie heard her friend's laugh before she saw her. It rang out from the hallway, bounced against the tile and glass. It was that light and free sound that she'd been hearing from Kate as of late, the laugh she released in Castle's presence now that there was no reason to hide it. The ME found herself smiling at the sound before smoothing her face into neutrality again. Lord, those two could make anyone sappy.

The metal door banged open and she turned to greet them. Castle was backing into the room, the door being pushed open against his shoulder blades. Kate was following closely. Close enough, in fact, that she had a grip on one of the lapels of his coat.

"That cannot be true!" Kate exclaimed at her partner, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

"I swear on my perfect daughter's head that is a thing that happened!" Castle insisted, holding his right hand up as though he was taking an oath.

The pair of them collapsed into giggles. _Giggles. _There were two grown adults giggling in her morgue.

"Next time you guys have story time, make sure to send me an invite," Lanie spoke up from across the room.

They turned surprised eyes to her; it looked like they hadn't even realized where they were. Kate's hand dropped from Castle's chest and he turned so they were standing side by side. They tried to suppress the giggling. Castle was more successful than his partner.

"He was just telling me about-" Kate tried to explain.

"Yeah, yeah, it's funny, I get it," Lanie cut her off. "Can we get to work?" She turned to retrieve the file with the information that she called them down for.

There was quiet for a long moment before Kate hesitantly replied, "Sure."

When Lanie turned back, they were all business, standing a respectful distance apart and looking at her expectantly. She suddenly wished that she had cookies to give them for being so good but settled for pulling back the sheet from the woman lying on the table.

"The four shots in the chest including the one that got her in the heart are nine millimeter just like I suspected, pulled the slugs for you, too." She motioned to a table against the wall where an evidence bag laid waiting. "But there's one other wound that I didn't notice until I got her back here. That bullet just grazed her but it's a different caliber than the others, fourty-four at best guess."

"You can tell that from a graze?"

Castle sounded impressed with her and as much as Lanie would love to say yes, "Well, it's slightly more than a graze." She reached across the body and pulled the woman's arm against her side. "More like two grazes, it went between her bicep and the side of her chest." The ME pointed at the twin marks that matched up; they looked like little more than scratches. "From that, I can tell it's a different kind of bullet but because it's not an actual hole, it's hard to be positive what size."

"At least that's consistent with Ryan's witness," Kate muttered. Lanie shot her a confused look and she explained, "Someone on the canvass told him that he saw 2 people running down the street but, until this, we didn't have any evidence that there was more than one person there. Anything else?"

"Nothing else weird, toxicology came back normal," Lanie answered while drawing the sheet back over their victim.

"Ok, thanks." Kate gave her a tight smile, apology in her eyes if not in her words.

They turned to leave but Lanie called out, "You got a minute?" They both turned back around but the question was directed at Kate specifically.

Her friend's brow was furrowed but, to her credit, she answered, "Yeah, sure," without sounding suspicious. She turned to her partner, "Hey, can you call the guys, catch them up?"

"Yeah," Castle answered, already pulling his phone out. "I'll meet you at the car." He gave Kate a reassuring smile, tossed a "Thanks," at Lanie and turned to leave, poking at his phone screen while shouldering the door open.

When the metal door swung closed, a palpable silence descended. Lanie glanced at Kate and found her picking at a spot on the sleeve of her coat, worrying the nub of fabric between her thumb and forefinger. She turned to put the file away, came around the table when she was done. "I don't wanna talk to my best friend in front a dead body, c'mon," she said while slipping her hand in the crook of Kate's elbow to draw her from the room.

They settled in the ME's cramped office, Kate took the extra chair and Lanie swung the office chair around so they were facing each other. No point in drawing anything out, Lanie dove in. "I heard you had an interesting conversation with the boys yesterday."

Kate huffed out a laugh. "Interesting is certainly a word. Though, 'embarrassing' is probably the one that I would go with. It was like being chastised by my brothers." They both chuckled at that. Kate winced and then asked, "You're not gonna chastise me, are you?"

"No, not at all," Lanie answered. "Hell, I'm not even mad at the flirting and touching, I think it's adorable." Kate ducked her head and blushed. "I am a little peeved at you for something else though."

Her friend sat up a little straighter. "Oooookay," she drew out, her eyes unfocused.

Lanie could practically see her detective brain whir to life as she tried to figure it out. "You want me to tell you or you gonna draw a mini-case board in your head?"

Kate flashed guilty eyes at her. "I just thought this was going to be the same conversation, Javi said-"

"Don't tell me you actually listen to what that man says about me," Lanie stopped her, her tone chastising but amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Kate chuckled at the outburst. "You're right, I really shouldn't." But then then she sobered, the smile dropped and a line of worry creased between her eyes. "So what is it? What else have I been doing to annoy people that I'm apparently not even aware of?"

"Oh honey, it's not like that. I'm just…a little hurt about something." Lanie dropped her eyes, suddenly feeling reproachful.

"Whatever it is, I guarantee you I'll be sorry," Kate cut into the silence that had lapsed.

"I know," Lanie answered her. She took a deep breath and asked the question she'd been holding back. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kate's eyes widened. "About Castle?" Lanie nodded. "I…I should have. We weren't telling anyone. Not even his daughter knew for a little while."

"So even when I asked you point blank you still couldn't say anything?"

"You put me on the spot! And we had just talked that morning about acting single in public and…" Kate trailed off, shaking her head at herself. "God, I sound so stupid."

"No, you don't. You wanted to protect what you have. Nothing stupid about that."

Kate nodded in agreement. "I just…had started to think that we would never be where we are now and I got scared. That if people knew, the bubble could burst and it wouldn't be real." Her voice dropped to just above a whisper, "I couldn't take the chance that it wouldn't be real."

"Oh, honey," Lanie said soothingly, rolled the chair up until their knees touched, and reached out to take her friend's hands in hers. "You don't still think that do you?"

The detective drew in a breath, shrugged on the exhale. "I think it less. That's an improvement, right?" Her lips lifted in a self-deprecating smile.

Lanie couldn't help but sigh at her friend. For all the brilliance she displayed in her job, the woman could be downright clueless in relationships. "It's the most real relationship I've ever seen you take on. And I've seen you through a lot of them. Trust me sweetie, this one's for keeps."

Kate gripped her friend's hands tighter. "I'm thinking that more and more, too."

"Piece of advice? Focus on that point and not the other one."

"I'm trying." Lanie arched an eyebrow at her. "I will," she amended.

"There ya go." She squeezed Kate's hands reassuringly before dropping them and scooting her chair back a bit. "We good?"

"We're great. And I really am sorry."

"I know," the apology was dismissed with a wave of the ME's hand. "And, by the way, I totally already knew it was him when I asked you that day. I was the first one to figure it out wasn't I?" She grinned, rather pleased with herself. Kate grimaced and the grin dropped. "I wasn't?!"

"Martha saw me in the closet the next morning," Kate admitted.

"Here I was, just about to send you back to your boy, but I have got to hear this story."

Soon, it was their combined laughter that rang out.

* * *

_That's the end of these little heart-to-hearts. I'd love to know what you think! (And be gentle about the bullet caliber thing, I got my info from wikipeidia and what I could remember from the one time I shot when I was 12.)_


End file.
